Basketball in Africa

Ulinzi Warriors made good their promise of using their experience to gun down Strathmore Blades 54-48 in the first playoffs match played at Nyayo gymnasium on Saturday. The soldiers ruled in all but the third quarter winning 18-14, 14-8 and 14-10 in the fourth while the varsity side won the third 8-16 in what appeared to be their resurgence after trailing by 15 points at the beginning of the third quarter.

The win sets one foot for the soldiers in the semi-finals but will have to wait and triumph over the students in the second game where the students have vowed to stage an upset to the soldiers and send them packing out of the league.
Victor Odendo was at it again inflicting misery on the students with three point shots nailing 12 points for the soldiers while Bernard Mufutu bagged 10. Strathmore’s Joseph Owino and Tonny Abondo each buried 8 points in the low scoring game.

Earlier, Eagle Wings led by Shani Silalei dismissed a worn out Gladiators 53-28 winning all the four quarters at 16-9, 12-8, 14-6 and 5-11 to finish the regular season at position two after defending champions. Angela Akoth bagged 10 points for Wings while Pam Cinda snatched 12 for Gladiators while in Mombasa’s Baptist school, defending champions COOP Bank fell to KPA by 9 points losing the highly contested game 64-55.
In the other league match played on Saturday at the Nyayo gymnasium Blazers beat Thunders 74-68.